Piston soak is a DIY project, I’m not sure any mechanic would agree to doing it, I certainly wouldn’t if I was professionally wrenching on cars.
2009 Camry Oil Consumption
- Thread starter Rick_b
- Start date
There are some TSB's for the procedure, but I agree....most mechanics will not be interested in doing it.
Well folks, I've put about 1300 miles on with the R&P and not much change yet. I know that isn't a whole lot of miles for this but thought maybe I would see some change. I've decided to go ahead and do the piston soak. I've done enough research now that I feel pretty confident in this. Using the B-12 and following some great instructions from you guys on here. Hoping for at least some improvement with the consumption.
The piston design is perfectly fine, it has 8 holes into the skirt and 4 slots to the gudgeon pin boss area, the issue is the race engine/high revving motorcycle engine oil control rings toyota put in there. While they are fantastic when new, they require removal and replacement or cleanup at regular intervals.
They are not even the 2 piece diesel type with a steel wire inside, they are an actual spring like an oil seal has and that has extremely tight winding, the outer casing ring (scraper) has sewing needle tip sized oil holes. (Those holes clog with very very little debris and your engine drinks oil), such oil rings also require a vacuum in the crankcase so oil doesnt push upwards. Toyotas pcv system is quite poor and because is uptop, even a slight air leak anywhere upsets the pcv function which causes sludge to form.
However hastings is selling the correct 3 piece 2mm vented oil ring and the 1mm compression rings for the later 2az, which is much better than any other brand from japan as the jp ones dont offer the 3 piece oil ring.
This isnt new, lots of older bmw engines suffered this fate.
Thanks for that info. At the age of this car I'm not really considering pulling the engine, but it's nice to know there are options. So at this point I've pulled the plugs and hardly any B12 has gone down...I put a towel over the engine and gently hand cranked a few rotations and nothing came out. I put the plugs back in to let it continue it's thing but this isn't really going how I anticipated it would...
@Elkins45 What is the current oil consumption now? Zero? What is the current odometer?
It used maybe 8 oz in 3000 miles. It dropped 1/4 the distance between the dots.
It was at 169K when I sold it in May.
Just checked it. Not much drainage other than cylinder 3 which was dry. Added a little bit to the others and about 2 oz back in #3. Give this a few more hours and check again. Turned the crank about 6 turns or so as well. This has been very interesting so far.
Good job 
I had a similar Toyota issue just used a 10/40 non synthetic oil cut my consumption. Valve guide seals were toast
I had a similar Toyota issue just used a 10/40 non synthetic oil cut my consumption. Valve guide seals were toast
Continue being diligent with your clean up efforts like you are doing. Takes time and no oil or additive is going to clean that up over night. Good job soo far and thanks for the updates!!!
The one thing I notice in the TSB is that it recommends pressurizing each cylinder at TDC, I assume to force the solvent down to all the rings. Makes sense.
I did look into getting something that would do that for me but Ive seen so many other people on here with success without that so I passed on it. But im sure it would make a difference.
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